Hey Ron, I don't know why you'd want to smack a Stump-F*#ker with a shovel. All they want is to visit flowers and find a piece of timber to punch their eggs into. I have a lot of experience with Megarhyssa nortoni from working in the Angora burn. They're harmless, and fairly tame early in the morning

Overexposed, but that's my finger

Credit: Willoughby

Visiting a corn lily flower

Credit: Willoughby

That ovipositor IS scary though:

cleaning off its ovipositor

Credit: Willoughby

The males actually go after the females before they even emerge as adults. They have to back their abdomens down the holes to try to reach them. They jam them way down in there; it's pretty crazy to watch.

E, they're like termites - they lose their wings when they hit the deck
and go commando. Ain't that right, Willoughby?

The Mutillidae are a family of more than 3,000 species of wasps (despite the names) whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair which most often is bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Their bright colours serve as aposematic signals. They are known for their extremely painful stings, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant. Unlike a real ant, they do not have drones, workers, and queens. However, velvet ants do exhibit haplodiploid sex determination similar to other members of Vespoidea.